Therapeutic Therapy: Constraint Induced Aphasia Therapy

After suffering from a stroke, many victims go through stroke rehabilitation to help regain the skills they had lost from the stroke. A specific ability lost or impaired are ones speech and language skills, resulting in acquiring aphasia. Constraint induced aphasia therapy (CIAT) was introduced by Pulvermuller, Neininger, Elbert, Mohr, Rockstroh, Koebbel, and Taub in 2001. It is a therapeutic technique that allows one to achieve their individualized vocational communication needs. CIAT requires patients to use spoken language, instead of other forms of nonverbal communication that they naturally want to use. Unlike many other forms of therapy, CIAT helps one to expand their expressive output abilities and their personal language production
Usually, therapy will last for three to four hours everyday for about two weeks or ten therapy days. Kirmes and Lind (2011) The length of CIAT is significantly shorter than conventional speech and language therapy because it is designed with stronger intensity. It forces a patient to use spoken language, rather than the usual methods of speech therapy. Although the intensity can be overwhelming for the patients at first, there is a positive relationship between higher intensity and a better therapy outcome. Cherney, Patterson, Raymer, Frymark, & Schooling (2008). When the speech language pathologist starts CIAT is extremely critical. If therapy starts from after the onset of aphasia up to six months, it will lead to a more successful outcome as well. Balardin and Miotto
Certain SLP’s feel that CIAT is too strong of a therapeutic technique to start right after a stroke. Others claim that it has not been proven to confirm its safety. Aside from the efficacy aspect of CIAT, the time and intensity of the therapy also requires a lot of time, money and materials in an extremely short amount of time. Positive results from CIAT experiments also allow one to question whether it was because of the high level of intensity or because a client actually had to speak. Ciccone et al. (2016) The lack of generalizaton of treatment effects is a frequent problem in CIAT. Efforts have since been made to try and incorporate everyday language in their therapy sessions. Spontaneous recovery is also extremely important when detailing the recovery of a client. An SLP has to know the difference between natural recovery and spontaneous recovery. Lendrem and Lincoln